GELLNER, FRANTIŠEK

GELLNER, FRANTIŠEK (1881–1914), Czech writer, poet, and cartoonist, and the outstanding satirist of his time. Born in Mladá Boleslav, Bohemia, into a poor family, Gellner studied painting first in Munich and then in Paris, where he published his early cartoons in Rire, Cri de Paris, and other French periodicals. He soon found, however, that he could express his anarchist creed better through the medium of verse, and his three books of poetry, modeled on the style of François Villon, contain some of the best satirical verse ever written in Czech. They are Po nás at přijde potopa (After us the Deluge, 1901), Radosti života (Pleasures of Life, 1903), and Nové verše (New Poems, 1919). In 1911 he joined the leading Czech newspaper Lidové Noviny, as a cartoonist and feature editor, and then began writing prose: his only novel, Potulný národ (Nation Errant, 1912), Cesta do hor a jiné povídky (Trip to the Mountains and Other Stories, 1914), and Povídky a satiry (Stories and Satires), which appeared in 1920 after his death. Because in many of his articles and short stories Gellner did not hesitate to subject Jewish weaknesses to the merciless lash of his satire, he has been criticized as an anti-Jewish writer. He disappeared while serving on the Russian front early in World War i. New editions of his works appeared in 1952, 1964, and in the 1990s.

bibliography:

F. Gellner, Spisy, 3 (1928), postscript by M. Hýsek; P. Váša and A. Gregor, Katechismus dějin české literatury (1925); O. Donath, Židé a Židovstvi v české literatuře 19. a 20. století, 2 (1930), index. add. bibliography: F. Gellner, Radosti života (1974); A. Mikulášek et al., Literatura s hvězdou Davidovou, vol. 1 (1998); Lexikon české literatury 1 (1985).

[Avigdor Dagan /

Milos Pojar (2^nd ed.)]